The instant invention relates to plasticized polyphosphazene homopolymers and copolymers. These plasticized resins are useful in the production of foams, insulation, cushioning formulations, wire coating formulations and other low smoke, low flammability formulations.
The preparation of polyphosphazene polymers has been disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,370,020, Allcock; U.S. Pat. No. 3,856,712, Reynard et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 3,856,713, Rose et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 3,883,451, Reynard et al. Many plasticizers or polymer softeners are known in the polymer industry including hydrocarbon processing oils, phthalate ester plasticizers and triaryl phosphates. In general, these plasticizers adversely effect flammability and lead to the generation of large amounts of smoke. Recently, as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,107,108, Dieck et al., polyphosphazene homopolymers and copolymers have been plasticized with compatible, fully substituted or partially substituted cyclophosphazenes. However, these cyclophosphazene plasticizers are expensive and must be utilized at fairly high levels to produce satisfactory resin performance.